The HOPE Scholarship reserve is expected to dry up next year, even without the cuts to lottery funded programs proposed by Governor Nathan Deal.

That’s because lottery revenues can’t keep up with rising enrollment and tuition at Georgia’s 35 public colleges and universities.

Lawmakers are considering ways to keep the program afloat...like limiting the amount of tuition the scholarship pays or adjusting the B average required to get and keep HOPE.

Jamie Jordan is a political science major at the University of Georgia who gets HOPE. He says he’s fine with the current 3.0 GPA needed to keep the scholarship but would like to see a higher standard for high school students.

"If somebody cans struggle to get a 3.0 in high school odds are they’re not going to keep it in college," says Jordan. "So a lot of these kids who are coming are failing out their first or second semester and we’re just losing this money as soon as we’re investing it."

UGA public relations major Christy McGee agrees but says she’d like to see it go a step further with at least a 3.3 GPA required for students to hold on to HOPE.

"A 3.0 is not that hard and I mean it was good for the years that we had it but money is tight right now," McGee says.

More than 29 percent of students attending state schools receive the HOPE Scholarship.

Tags: education, Athens, University of Georgia, budget cuts, HOPE scholarship, 2011 General Assembly